MUSIC REVIEW : Livingston Leads USC Ensemble

Take one medium batch of tender yet highly skilled musicians, blend equal parts motivation and sensitivity, simmer, add a dash of originality and mix vigorously.

That was the winning recipe that guest conductor Larry Livingston used in leading the USC Chamber Orchestra at Bovard Auditorium on Tuesday night.

In the second concert of its first full season, the full complement of 44 players opened with Verdi’s Overture to “Nabucco.” While lacking the drama of any mature Verdi, it at least provided clues as to what the evening held in store: a string section with sheen, woodwinds to match, and a brass choir that isn’t quite on the same level.

Livingston--dean of the USC School of Music and founder of this ensemble--revealed his true gifts in Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll.” Shaping the phrases lovingly but never losing a natural sense of flow, he perfectly captured the essential spirit of the piece. One could carp that the horn solo failed to generate the proper momentum in the central portion of the work, but at the close the spell was intact, as a rapt audience held its collective breath for close to half a minute.

Adapting from incidental music for a French comedy, Haydn couldn’t resist some of his famous musical humor in Symphony No. 60 (“Il Distratto”). For the only time in the concert, there was a touch of stridency in the strings in the first two movements, but the abandon and vigor of the Menuetto, which spilled so naturally into the fourth movement, were a delight.

Livingston had shown an ability to create quiet tension with the full length of his lanky body, along with an economy of effective hand motions.

He added to these an apparent ease with contemporary music in “Signs of Life” by Russell Peck. Written in 1983 for string orchestra, this neo-Romantic work comprises a lyrical Arioso and a vigorous Scherzo. Filled with all manner of string techniques applied in imaginative ways, the piece is so engaging as to make one wish to hear it again, and soon. The insistent applause that followed half-granted the wish: an encore of the Scherzo.